This invention relates to vehicle roof racks, for the carriage of external loads, of the kind which sit upon and are secured to the roof gutter customarily found on cars and commercial vehicles. Such roof racks are well known, being widely used by tradesmen and others for the transport of ladders, lengths of pipe, timber planks and like relatively heavy articles which are too long for stowage within the vehicle.
Conventionally, roof racks of the kind in question comprise at least two assemblies spaced apart in the fore-and-aft direction of the vehicle, and each comprising a cross-beam adapted to span from side to side of the vehicle's roof, two legs, one at each side of the vehicle with their feet resting on the floor of the roof gutter, which support the cross-beam above the roof, and clamping means to hold the legs to the gutter.
Those clamping means conventionally comprise, in respect of each leg, a hook or claw shaped component slideably located on the leg which is adapted to engage the under side of the gutter and which may be drawn upwardly to clamp the floor of the gutter between itself and the foot of the leg. That component frequently takes the form of a hook bolt with its threaded stem extending upwardly through a tube or guide way on, or formed in, the leg. In any event, the movement of that component of the clamping means has hitherto been restricted to upward linear movement. This has limited the ability of the clamping means to adjust to variations in the sizes and shapes of vehicle gutters found in practice and to hold the roof rack in position under emergency braking or crash conditions. Occasional accidental injury has occurred as a result of racks being dislodged under those conditions.